Online gambling revenue shows first decline in NJ

Stacks of U.S. $100 bills are arranged for a photograph in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. New Jersey’s fledgling Internet gambling industry saw its first monthly decline in April, falling slightly to $11.4 million.
(Photo:
Bloomberg
)

ATLANTIC CITY – New Jersey’s fledgling Internet gambling industry saw its first monthly decline, falling slightly to $11.4 million in April.

In March, which had one more day of gambling than April had, Internet gambling brought in $11.9 million. Figures released Wednesday by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement show the average online take per day was $380,958 in April, down from $383,173 in March.

Online gambling had shown monthly increases of 28 percent in January, 9 percent in February, and 15 percent in March. It began in late November as a way of helping the struggling casinos bring in new revenue and new customers.

Joe Lupo, senior vice president of the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, said his casino has always believed that mobile devices would be key to Internet gambling revenue. Getting the different platforms to work with 3G and 4G smartphones will help in coming months, he predicted. Lupo also said the industry hopes for more widespread credit card and other electronic payments to fund Internet gambling accounts.

“It simply takes time when launching a new business,” he said.

The Borgata continued to lead New Jersey’s online market, with $16.4 million so far this year, compared to $13.1 million for Caesars Interactive and $6.2 million from the Tropicana Casino and Resort. The Golden Nugget and the two Trump casinos ranged from $2 million to $2.7 million in online winnings for the year.

Overall revenue, including online bets and those placed in person at brick-and-mortar casinos, increased by 3.2 percent in April to $235.9 million, compared with April 2013.

Revenue from the 11 casinos that operated in April of both years was up by 3.3 percent, but those figures exclude the Atlantic Club, which closed in January. When the Atlantic Club was included, Atlantic City’s casinos posted a decline of 1.8 percent compared to April 2013.

Revel Casino Hotel saw the biggest gain at 55 percent, from $8 million a year ago to $12.5 million this April.

The Golden Nugget showed a 40 percent overall increase in April, to $13 million; Caesars Atlantic City was up 17 percent to $34 million, and the Borgata was up 12.8 percent to nearly $49 million. Resorts Casino Hotel was up 7.7 percent to $12.5 million, and the Tropicana was up 6.4 percent to $21.9 million.

Trump Plaza had the biggest decline at 26 percent, to $4.4 million; the Showboat was down more than 20 percent to $13.2 million as parent company Caesars Entertainment pondered selling or closing one of its four Atlantic City properties; the Trump Taj Mahal was down 18.8 percent to $17.6 million, Bally’s was down 12.2 percent to $16.7 million, and Harrah’s was down 10.4 percent to $24.9 million.

So far this year, the 11 casinos and the 16 online sites have collectively won $831 million, down 6 percent compared with the first four months of 2013.